To give my weaning DD Quorn?

[Spice17]

Should have namechanged to 'Clueless' as I'm trying to get to grips with weaning and, well, I'm not.

Basically I'm Veggie and DH isn't but will eat meals I cook like Spag bol and curries etc with Quorn in. DD is 4 months old, so I've started to think about weaning and am after genuine responses because I really don't know if this is OK or not.

Can I give DD Quorn and other meat substitutes? I know it's not to everyone's taste, but is it OK/safe?

I'm thinking with Spag bol etc, as long as it's salt free, she could have a bit of that. I always put veggies in it anyway, so could skip the Quorn or often a cheaper substitute just unsure if it's OK?

TIA :)

[blondefriend]

And to all you meat eating anti-Quornites: at least I can guarantee 100% that my dcs haven't been eating horsemeat!

I've given my children horse steak before and never Quorn. I don't see the problem with horse, I've also given them zebra, venison and ostrich. TBH I rarely give any kind of processed meat/protein although they do like Smiles/waffles occasionally.

I'm allergic to Quorn so wouldn't personally risk it with my children. In your position I would leave it until after you have introduced egg, wheat and other allergens just to make sure that they are not sensitive.

[13Iggis]

I bloody love quorn, there I've said it. Been veggie for about a hundred years but I did love chickeny things, and quorn is great in stir frys, burgers etc.
Have given 8 month old a slice of the stuff you get for sandwiches, but won't again having read the links. He was not too impressed anyway!
I've been cooking some lentils up with potatoes and sometimes cheese sauce, which seems to be a hit.
Must confess I don't know what a pulse it, I am not a wholefood type of vegetarian. But want the LO to have a better diet than me.

[golemmings]

I was veggie until we weaned dd when I started eating fish. Dc2 was dairy and soy intolerant and both dcs were weaned onto our food pretty rapidly. It never occurred to me that there might be an issue with quorn so they ate it when we did, probably from 8 or 9 months. They don't appear to have had any problems with it.
DS has not eaten as much as dd because the fillets etc contain milk which makes him ill.we all eat the mince though, probably once or twice a week.

[zippey]

I think quorn is fine as long as your child likes it and is part of a varied diet. Id feel a bit guilty if I was depriving my child of meat tbh.

[HeadfirstForHalos]

"Id feel a bit guilty if I was depriving my child of meat tbh. "

Depriving?

[maninawomansworld]

Interesting one, I am not sure it's ideal as it's got a lot of precessed stuff in it. Aside from this, why are you desperate for your DD to be veggie? Shouldn't that be her decision to make when she's old enough to make an informed choice?
My sister is veggie, she turned when she was 8 or 9 and the whole family thought 'ok, this'll last a week', but she had made an informed choice and now in her 30s she hasn't touched meat since.

If you do go down the forcing it on her route then be very very careful to give her enough protein. Adults can get away with being a little deficiant but baby cannot. A fifth of all the protein in your body goes directly to fuel your brain, more when it's still developing.
There is a direct link in monkey fossils between brain size / intelligence levels and the development of canine teech (indicating increased meat consumption). This has been borne out with modern research.

When kids are still very young it is definately NOT the time to be enforcing your idealogical stuff onto them at the possible expense of their health / development.

[exexpat]

Maninawomansworld - you are making the assumption that eating meat is the norm or default position. It may be for you, and for a lot of the UK, but not for my family or for large swathes of the world's population. I have brought my children up vegetarian because that is my default position; if they decide at some stage that they want to eat meat that will be up to them, but they will be aware of the health & ethical downsides of meat-eating first.

Nutritionally there is no reason not to bring children up vegetarian - mine are big (98th centile), healthy and highly intelligent.

[claig]

Don't just google quorn, also google soy/soya for danger risk etc. There is lots on it.

It is not a matter of whether you feel sick straightaway, it is the potential longterm effects that count.

[claig]

To anyone who is interested in soya, this is an excellent Guardian article.

Unfortunately, they are putting soya into lots and lots of our food.

Should we worry about soya in our food

[LoonyRationalist]

Maninawomansworld, what an uninformed post.

As Exexpat says many populations in the world are vegetarian and manage to bring up healthy children. Meat is not essential to the human diet.

[andagain]

Spice17, we brought our daughter up veggie, she is now nearly 6. She eats Quorn stuff now but I didn't give her any until she was about 2. Like someone else said, even thought it is high on protein it is very low on fat (and kids do need fat) and has got too much salt for young children.

I am pretty sure I still have the veggie cook book for babies and kids, which I used when DD was little. I am happy to send it to you. Just pm me your address if you are interested.

[andagain]

"though" not "thought"

[JenaiMorris]

It's perfectly possible to raise a child from weaning as vegetarian but it's bound to be trickier to find good quality sources of protein than it is for omnivores.

Claig it baffles me that soy still has a healthy eco image

[ScarletLady02]

I've never eaten meat, I'm 5'10", smart (at least I like to think so) and a healthy weight, always have been. We don't NEED meat to be healthy, even as babies. You can get everything you need from a vegetarian diet. And RE the "forcing your views on your child" argument, could you not also argue that by giving meat to your child you are doing the same thing? We, as parents, give our children what we eat. As long as it's healthy, does it matter if meat is left out? Of course not.

OP, I make spag bol with red lentils instead of Quorn. I also use that as a base for lasagne. For what it's worth, it's one of my DD's favourite meals (she also eats meat, as my DH does).

[CreepyLittleBat]

I wish I'd known about the whole monkey fossil thing. If I'd fed my dc on meat, they might have ended up three years ahead of their year groups in maths instead of two.

No wonder monkeys rule the world, leaping from tree to tree with their little monkey ipads.....chewing on pepperami when they have a moment.

[claig]

'Claig it baffles me that soy still has a healthy eco image'

I think it is deliberate. Obviously there is a lot of money in it for the producers and processors, but there is more to it than just money.

[exexpat]

[redplasticspoon]

Manina what an ill informed and totally inaccurate post. You are choosing to impose your dietary habits in your children the same way vegetarians are. Incidentally it is proven that a vegetarian diet is far healthier, so maybe it is more apt to ask you why you are feeding your children food that is proven to be unhealthy, but I wouldn't be so rude.

As for the op, I agree with other posters who say wait a bit, thought in moderation quorn is fine before a year.

[claig]

Ignorance is bliss or is it?

[exexpat]

Claig, I am perfectly aware of the research on soya and the possible hormonal effects etc. I often eat Asian style soy foods (tofu, miso, natto), but tend to avoid highly-processed manufactured foods as much as possible in general (see Michael Pollan for my general views on healthy eating). So I am not ignoring the issues.

It was your lines "I think it is deliberate" and "there is more to it than just money" that made me think "oh no, here we go again with the conspiracy theories", which I really can't be bothered with.

[claig]

Why do you think there is lots of info about 'five-a-day' and fat etc. and not much info to the millions of people who eat soya and soya-based products about possible health effects?

Soya is in bread and lots of our food and in much processed food, cereals, biscuits, sweets etc. etc. which are eaten by nearly everyone. Yet you will nearly only hear about its possible adverse effects from what are termed "conspiracy theorists". Why do you think that is?

Where is the public information campaign about it? Why was there a campaign about saturated fats which are now growingly seen to be healthy, and it was the nay-sayers and doubters and questioners who forced the u-turn on saturated fats, not the officials?

When it comes to food, look into for yourself, don't believe everything you are told. Some of it may be concealed from you and some info you are given may be plain wrong.

[claig]

You are what you eat.

Look into what you are eating and what effect it may have in the longterm to your health. Don't believe that just because it is sold on the shelf and you are told how good it is, that it is good for you.

[MrsHuxtable]

Manina, you sound so misinformed, it's quite funny.The OP is not planning to deprive her child of protein. There are plentyof healthy protein sources that aren't meat!

OP, our whole family is veggie to. DD is 1 now and we started weaning her at 6.5 months, vegetarian.

For protein, DD has homemade hummus, lentil bolognese, soups with lentils, pumpkin seed butter. She als now loves kidney beand as a snack.

I really would avoid meat substitutes as they are so processed and fll of salt. Remember that babies under 1 should have less than 1g of salt a day. With 1 slice of bread, you're more than halfway there.

[JenaiMorris]

redplastic it depends on the vegetarian diet, surely? A diet of Margherita pizza and chocolate cake isn't going to be as nutritious as one of plenty of vegetables alongside fish and judicial quantities of good quality, unprocessed meat.

I believe a lot of soya is produced for animal feed - I have no idea what this means for omnivores though.

[claig]

'I believe a lot of soya is produced for animal feed'

You are right. Meat eaters can't escape it, just as they often can't escape GM feed elements for animals. I didn't know that the many of burgers also contained soya protein.

I read labels, but that would never have occurred to me, but I know it now.